Bulky, oddly-shaped and/or heavy durable goods such as automobile seats have been transported through interstate commerce and through a variety of assembly lines using shipping boxes or pallets with a variety of attachment mechanisms to secure the goods in place on the pallet. For example, several well known attachment mechanisms include bungee cords, straps, clips, plastic bags or wraps or combinations thereof. While such attachment mechanisms have been used for securing such items to a pallet there are often times significant drawbacks to their use.
One drawback associated with traditional attachment mechanisms is that often times attachment mechanisms such as straps or cords provide a safety risk because they are susceptible to getting tangled, broken or getting caught in a moving assembly line. Moreover, straps and cords, if they are not securely fastened to the pallet, must be collected and stored separately from the pallets where they can get lost, mixed up, or separated from other like devices. In these circumstances, the straps or cords are cumbersome and easily entangleable and generally add inefficiency to the manufacturing process. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an attachment mechanism that was securely attached to a pallet to prevent the attachment mechanism from becoming entangled in a moving assembly line. Moreover, it would be advantageous to eliminate inefficiencies associated with having to maintain the attachment mechanism separate from the pallet, and to provide an attachment mechanism that was always available and adaptable to a variety of goods.
Another problem associated with shipping heavy, variably sized or shaped, and/or bulky goods is that often times one attachment mechanism is insufficient to securely attach the goods to the pallet. In these circumstances, the attachment mechanism might be designed to secure a particular item, but because of insufficient design, bungee cords or rope may also be used to ensure the item is secure. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an attachment mechanism that securely held the goods in place on the pallet without having to resort to combining multiple attachments mechanisms for securing the goods.
Finally, most attachment mechanisms require more than one manual step to secure or release the goods to the pallet. In fact, most attachment mechanisms are complicated or cumbersome to the point of slowing production in an assembly line as assemblers may struggle to secure or release the goods in a timely fashion. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an attachment mechanism that secured or released the goods in a single step or a continuous motion and could be done so without causing a bottle neck in the assembly process.